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Jul 14, 2009

Exxon to invest in making fuel from algae: report

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp is expected to announce on Tuesday a $600 million investment to produce liquid transportation fuels from algae, the New York Times said.

The oil major's biofuel effort involves a partnership with Synthetic Genomics, a biotechnology company founded by the genomics pioneer Craig Venter, according to the paper.

Exxon spent several years exploring various fuel alternatives, the paper said, citing Emil Jacobs, vice president for research and development at Exxon's research and engineering unit.

"We literally looked at every option we could think of, with several key parameters in mind," Jacobs told the paper, adding that scale was the first.

"For transportation fuels, if you can't see whether you can scale a technology up, then you have to question whether you need to be involved at all," Jacobs told the paper.

Exxon fended off proposals related to renewable fuels at an investors meeting in May.

"Certainly for the foreseeable future, the world is going to continue to rely on fossil fuels," CEO Rex Tillerson told the meeting.

Courtesy of reuters.com 7/14/09

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Ben Tan)

Conserv-A-Store says:

Well this is quite interesting. The company that contributed to horrible Alaska oil spills, whose management has often denied any thought of climate change, who made record profits during the 08 summer run up in petrol prices contributing to this near depression we are all in, is finally seeing the light a bit.